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Russia And Realism

The war on the control of Ukraine is not about to end. With the West and especially America with so much interest in increasing its control to the West and into Ukraine, they will continue to be in conflict with Russia. Putin once said that every help whether I terms of finance or arms the West puts on Ukraine, Russia will respond with an equal share or amount of help. This shows that the struggle to remain in control is still on and is a reality that the West needs to acknowledge. Putin declares that Russia’s interest in Ukraine outweighs by far the interest by the United States.

Flaws in the Argument

Russia believes that America and NATO lost interest in Ukraine when they led them to the signing of the Budapest Memorandum in 1194. This made Ukraine surrender all her nuclear weapons for security reasons. NATO has not showed any interest in making Ukraine a member state. In a speech at the Bucharest Summit on April 3, 2008, NATO did not show any commitment to making Ukraine its member state. They just welcome Ukraine but do not show any specificity whatsoever as to when they will register Ukraine and only make a future commitment. Putin believes that the West does not have any interest in the development of Ukraine.

Putin does not believe that the security threat announced by NATO concerning Russia is true. This has led to a lot of enmity with many nations especially that of the West. Some people, however, believe that Putin is just being paranoia, and such statements should not lead to enmity.

Rationality about Ukraine

As long as Putin and Ukraine believe that they have the best interest for Ukraine, they will continue to counter any help offered to Ukraine by the West. This is regardless of how far reaching the financial consequences will be. If Russia does not have Ukraine on its list of objectives, then this is not real. Realistic considerations don’t show any strong ties between Russia and Ukraine. Putin is, therefore, being irrational. Even though Russia and Ukraine could have some political, social and religious ties, it may be hard to develop a good relationship between the two. Russia and some realists like Putin, however, want to try luck. My opinion is that Russia sees some reality and leave the internal affairs of Ukraine. This will show they truly have no vested interest in Ukraine. The constant standoff with the West will not do any good to Ukraine.